What is ‘target’ in TVM?

[sho]

Hi @areusch, Thank you so much. LLVM is getting clear to me.

@areusch

@sho

As you probably know, I was confused about LLVM, and how it is used. So LLVM is used to build TVM compiler. LLVM also works when you input your model into TVM compiler and get TVM’s IR. LLVM compiles the TVM’s IR, and produces executables. (I’m still not sure where gcc is used when you build TVM from source though…)

There are actually two roles LLVM could play in TVM:

1. To build TVM from source

Ah LLVM is used to build TVM because it also has a frontend for C/C++!

@areusch

As a Target backend (e.g. relay.build(..., target="llvm")), in which case TVM links against LLVM (e.g. LLVM is a static library) at compile time, and TVM then contains the code-generation pieces of LLVM and is in turn able to emit machine code to implement a model, just like LLVM does.

Ok, in this case LLVM emits code for say x86, arm, etc, at least not for microcontrollers.

I think I can now use TVM on any microcontrollers thanks to you. Also I have clearer idea about what LLVM is doing in TVM.